Topic: salmon

UPDATE, 3:10 p.m. | The Associated Press EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon state police are investigating whether the driver of a tanker truck was drunk when it crashed and spilled thousands of baby salmon onto a road in western Oregon. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates 11,000 juvenile salmon died in Tuesday’s wreck on state Route 126…

Yakima Herald-Republic BONNEVILLE DAM — It’s crowded in the fish ladders this week at Bonneville Dam. A record-setting 67,521 fall chinook salmon passed over the Columbia River dam on Monday, besting the record set the day before and bringing this season total to 435,135 and counting. Despite the daily records, the fall chinook are not on track to…

The Associated Press SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Board of Forestry has voted unanimously to keep moving forward on developing rules to making sure logging sites leave enough trees standing along salmon streams to keep the water shaded and cool. The vote Wednesday in Salem directs the Department of Forestry to finish developing various alternatives – including…

This was not a great week to be an animal. Or a small child. …Or an adult who snacks on pet treats, but that one seems like a known risk. Below are five offbeat stories you might have missed on seattletimes.com. Here’s hoping our brethren in the animal kingdom fare better next week.

The Associated Press SEATTLE — The summer cookout season is heralded each spring by the arrival of the first Copper River salmon from Alaska. An Alaska Air Cargo plane from Cordova touched down Friday morning and the pilots emerged with a 48-pound king salmon. They carried it down a red carpet and delivered it to three…

By Christine Pratt / The Wenatchee World WENATCHEE — Seen a helicopter dipping a basket into the Columbia River below Rock Island Dam lately? It wasn’t fighting a wildfire. The Grant County PUD is using a helicopter to release tagged juvenile salmon into the river to track their movements through Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams. The two dams…

CLARKSTON, Asotin County — The Army Corps of Engineers this spring will begin killing birds at some Snake and Columbia river dams to help protect juvenile salmon and steelhead.

The agency unveiled a plan Thursday that will allow as many as 1,200 California gulls, 650 ring-billed gulls and 150 double-crested cormorants to be killed. The birds gather at the dams and feast on the migrating salmon and steelhead which bunch up there.

The Lewiston Tribune said the action will occur at McNary Dam on the Columbia River and Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the Snake River.

The corps said birds are typically the single-largest cause of juvenile salmon and steelhead mortality. A 2009 study estimated that between 4 percent and 21 percent of smolts passing through the dams were eaten by birds.

The corps has long used non-lethal methods to scare away birds.

The plan has critics.

Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said there are better ways to protect the fish, such as removing the dams.

The Associated Press A federal judge on Friday ordered the state of Washington to fix culverts that block salmon from reaching their habitat, setting a timeline and pressuring officials to find the money needed to do the job. U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez’s ruling was the result of a decades-old legal battle tied to treaties…

The Associated Press UNION, Wash. — A flooding river covered a road in Washington, allowing some migrating salmon to swim across the pavement. Video from KOMO-TV shows one salmon didn’t make it Wednesday when it was caught by a dog that walked away with its catch near Union, about 40 miles southwest of Seattle. The salmon-crossing-the-road scene is…

Weather: It’s going to be nice today, despite what the chart says about scattered showers. It said there would be showers yesterday, and we saw a lot of sun. The weekend’s looking good, too. The National Weather Service forecast. Traffic: That was one nasty accident on I-5 near I-90 yesterday afternoon, causing…

About The Today File

The Today File is a general news blog featuring real-time coverage of Seattle and the Northwest. It is reported by the news staff of The Seattle Times and includes stories from The Associated Press and McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.